Gluten Free Teriyaki Sauce

This is the best and easiest gluten free teriyaki sauce recipe! It’s made with simple, pantry staple ingredients and perfect to use with chicken, salmon, tofu or your favorite steamed veggies.

Whenever I don’t know what to make for dinner, I usually reach for my ground beef taco bowls or something with this gluten free teriyaki sauce.

This gluten free teriyaki sauce is made of a base of tamari which is just gluten free soy sauce, plus garlic, ginger, sesame oil, rice vinegar, a bit of sweetener and a bit of cornstarch to make the sauce thick and a bit sticky.

It’s savory, sweet, salty and takes just 15 minutes from start to finish! A total fan favorite and an essential recipe to have in your back pocket. If you love this recipe, try my sesame noodles next!

Tips before we get started!

• Make sure you are using low sodium tamari here! The full strength stuff will be way too salty. The low sodium usually comes in 30% reduced or 50% reduced, I usually use the 30% reduced.
• Feel free to make this more or less sweet based on your preferences. I used mostly brown sugar with a touch of honey to balance the sweetness, but you can omit the honey and just use the brown sugar if you prefer.

How to make gluten free teriyaki sauce

Add the sesame oil to a small pot on the stove and heat over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and ginger and saute for just 1-2 minutes.

Whisk in the tamari, sugar, honey and rice vinegar.

In small dish, whisk together the water and cornstarch until you have no clumps. Pour into the pot on the stove and bring to a low boil.

Reduce the heat to low, then let simmer for about 5 minutes to let the sauce thicken. It will continue to thicken as it cools! Enjoy and try with my teriyaki salmon.

How to store

I love prepping this sauce at the beginning of the week to have on hand for simple recipes throughout the week or just use for a quick veggie stir fry. It will thicken quite a bit as it sits so I suggest whisking it up with a bit of water before serving or just heating on the stove with a splash of water to thin it out.

Once prepared, it will store in the fridge for up to 1 week. I suggest letting it cool completely, then transferring to a glass jar or container and keeping sealed in the fridge.

Ingredient tips

Tamari. Tamari is just gluten free soy sauce and makes up the base of teriyaki sauce. Be sure to use low sodium so it doesn’t get too salty.

Sesame oil. Be sure to use toasted sesame oil for this recipe. A lot of other teriyaki sauce recipes don’t use any sesame oil, but it adds such a great flavor and makes this one a bit more unique.

Brown sugar and honey. A mix of honey and brown sugar will help sweeten the sauce and give that classic flavor. You can sub the brown sugar for coconut sugar to keep this completely refined sugar free.

Spice: As written, this vegan teriyaki sauce is not spicy, but if you want it to be, you can add in either some hot sauce or red pepper flakes. I prefer the red pepper flakes, but either works!

More sauce recipes you’ll love!

• Vegan Chipotle Aioli
• Cilantro Lime Crema
• Basil Pesto Vinaigrette

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